Lots of names come to mind when thinking of the more popular film score composers of the past two decades. Names like Danny Elfman, John Williams, and Quincy Jones have dominated the craft for so long, it’s refreshing when a newcomer joins the ranks. In the last 5 years, Michael Giacchino has earned his slot in the Mount Everest of film composers.

Giacchino has shown his incredible range scoring projects such as LOST, Speed Racer, The Incredibles, Star Trek, and finally getting himself an Oscar for his work on Disney’s Up. It looks like the major studio isn’t letting go of Giacchino any time soon, as they have just hired him to compose the score for the upcoming space adventure John Carter of Mars.

It makes sense that Disney would go with this pick, given his work on their more recent Pixar films, especially with Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton directing the film. While that connection makes the most sense, it could also be attributed to the amazing score Giacchino composed for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, which could easily go down as one of the best sci-fi scores of recent history.

Even with this news, John Carter of Mars is most definitely not shaping up to be a small picture. With Disney backing the film, and a cast made up of Taylor Kitsch, Mark Strong, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Cranston, Dominic West, Polly Walker, Thomas Hayden Church, Samantha Morton and Lynn Collins, you can expect to see big things from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

As we previously reported, NBC has given new season order for 30 Rock, The Office and Community while, according to a recent interview with NBC network president Angela Bromstad, a fifth season of the beleaguered Heroes is still undetermined. In addition, the CW has ordered a 10th season for Smallville.

Now, Fox has officially renewed the J.J. Abrams sci-fi procedural Fringe for a third season. The show had perfoemed reasonably well but was not a ratings powerhouse. Still, it’s hard to believe it wouldn’t get renewed, especially given its J.J. Abrams connection and the fact that Lost is ending this season.

Two big reasons for Fox to keep it around for another year. Plus, any show with the great John Noble, the hot Anna Torv and the cool Leonard Nimoy should be on the air as long as it wants to be.

The fate of Jack Bauer and the CTU team of 24 is still up in the air due to falling ratings and the show’s considerable expense to produce. Fox president Kevin Reilly recently told The Live Feed:

“It’s a very tough call. It’s a huge part of our legacy, and there’s not a lot of shows that could do a 9 share against the Olympics. Tremendous sales asset for us still; a show we’re so very proud of creatively. So it’s not an easy call.”

Well, if our own Shannon Hood has anything to say about it, that call should be an easy one.

We’re all pretty excited around The Flickcast offices for February. Not just because it means warmer weather for those of us on the East Coast, but mostly because that means LOST is back on the air with its final season. We’ve been bringing you plenty of LOST tidbits from all over the web lately, and now it’s time for something even more fun.

We’ve gone into how quirky LOST fans can be before, and how much time and/or effort they put into their fanaticism (which we love, of course), but our collective hats are tipped for this little piece of fandom. This friendly YouTuber put together all of the clips from the show leading up to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, and threw it together chronologically, with a bit of 24 flavoring.

Many props go out to YouTube’s pyram1dhead for his work on this one. He had also done the same thing for when the survivors all met for the first time at the Sydney airport. Lots of time and effort go into things like these, and we are more than happy to share it with you.

Check out out after the jump, and be sure to keep it here as we count down to next week’s LOST premiere with plenty of quirky things to keep your mouth watering.

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With exactly one week left before our minds get blown once again in the final season premiere of LOST, fans everywhere are still jonesing for whatever tidbits the internet has to offer about the upcoming episodes. We’ve been sure to bring you as much as we could, with new promos and pics, but this latest TV spot seems to give the most that we’ve seen.

Last we left everyone in season 5, Jacob was dead, Locke’s body was shown to the “undead” Locke, and Juliet set off the bomb that may or may not have reset time back to before all of this happened. Next week’s premiere is titled “LA X”, which could signify the airport that everyone was supposed to land in if things went well. It could also (and most likely) be a misdirection.

Check out the official ABC TV spot after the jump, and be sure to catch the season 6 premiere of LOST next Tuesday, February 2nd, on ABC.

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With the final season of LOST beginning to air in just over two weeks, fans are already salivating over more unanswered questions, mysteries, and unexpected deaths. This season is expected to ramp up those same themes with much more before the island – and it’s inhabitants – disappear forever.

Exec. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were recently bombarded with questions from the press about what will happen in the coming season. They were tight-lipped, as usual, but they did spill the beans on some facts, such as the fact that Libby (Cynthia Watros) and Michael (Harold Perrineau) will be back. Lindelof also said that this season may be the most frustrating. From the Hollywood Reporter:

“Get ready to scratch your heads, America!” Lindelof said about the premiere. The sentiment was echoed by several cast members. “I think I had to read it three times before it made sense,” Emilie de Ravin said. As for the May finale, “there is certainly a hope that everybody universally loves the ending, but I don’t think it would be ‘Lost’ if there wasn’t an ongoing and active debate,” Lindelof said.

“If I could put on my predicting hat, there’s going to be some that think it’s the worst ending in the history of TV, and on the other end, to balance that out, would be my mom.”

Given that most fans of TV are used to cop-out or confusing endings over the past few years (I’m looking at you Sopranos and Battlestar Galactica), but if one of the executive producers of the show is claiming that we’ll more than likely hate the ending, then we should be prepared for the mother of all unanswered questions come May.

Lost returns to ABC on Tuesday, February 2nd.

While folks over in the J.J. Abrams camp are revving up for the final season of LOST, there’s still something to look forward to on the horizon. News has just hit that a release date for the sequel to last May’s Star Trek has been announced…and that date is June 29th, 2012.

So before we start joining in the debate on whether the next villain should be Kahn, Klingons, The Borg, or Tribbles, realize that we still have over two years before we’ll get to “boldly go…” once more in theaters.

No word has been stated on what the plot will be, but last we heard from the cast and crew, just about everyone will be returning for the sequel (with the exception of Nimoy as Spock Prime). The film will at least be getting a prime box office slot, as it’s the weekend before Independence Day, which is primarily a hot ticket weekend for theaters.

Just think, between now and the time the film hits theaters, we’ll have already seen two Iron Man films, a Thor movie, and another six films starring Miley Cyrus. Isn’t the anticipation overwhelming??

Say what you will about fans of ABC’s LOST, but they are certainly imaginative. From a Lost-inspired painting of the “Last Supper”, to an entire art show dedicated to it, the fans are always looking for some way to incorporate Abrams, Lindelof and Cuse’s mysterious island into their daily lives.

Now it looks like fans want to experience the island for themselves…as a ride. What started off as a joke from California blogger and Lost fanatic Jon Stueve, who originally threw the idea of a Lost ride into the ether, fans are now hungry for the idea. The Examiner reports:

“In a random tweeted conversation between Stueve and someone he follows, photos of Disneyland led to the statement, ‘Let me know when they’ve made Tom Sawyer Island into Dharma Island.’ Having it out there, Stueve thought the idea was 1) humorous, and 2) had potential, so he made another public tweet. He was flabbergasted when Doc Jensen tweeted back, ‘I TOTALLY SECOND LOST_WFTB’s CALL FOR TURNING TOM SAWYER ISLAND AT DISNEYLAND INTO #LOST ISLAND! GET ON THAT, DISNEY!’”

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With ABC’s Lost returing to the air next month for it final season, we thought it would be great if someone were to put together a video highlighting all the things you should know before the new season begins. With a show as complex as Lost, audiences who’ve been watching the show from the beginning can sometimes get confused, so we can imagine how new viewers might feel.

Fortunately, lostpediablog over at YouTube has obviously read our minds and done exactly what was necessary: put together a video giving you everything you need to know about Lost, all in 8 minutes and 15 seconds. The video is well done, funny, and actually gives you quite a bit of information, which is good. If you’ve never seen Lost or even if you’ve been with it from the beginning, watching this can only help enhance your understanding of this great show.

Check out the video after the jump. The final season of Lost premieres on Tuesday, February 2 at 9PM — and now you’ll be ready. You’re welcome.

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With the final season of ABC’s  LOST coming up in less than a month, it’s only expected that we will see a lot more viral marketing from the camp that brought us the marketing beast Cloverfield. With that in mind comes a brand new set of promotional images for the upcoming season, portraying the cast in a classic “Last Supper” scenario.

In it, we get the final cast of characters for this upcoming set of episodes, with Locke (Terry O’Quinn) seemingly at the center of it all. There are supposedly clues all around both images, that could lead us to various conclusions and conspiracies for the upcoming season, so take a close look at each one.

This isn’t the first time that TV land has done something like this. In fact, this is the third time that this exact technique has been used. First, done for the final season of The Sopranos with Tony at the center. And once again for the final season of Battlestar Galactica, with Six as the main focus.

Take that as you will, but if this trend continues, does this mean that we’ll be getting an office version of How I Met Your Mother or Glee at some point?

Check out the full images after the jump, and let us know if you catch any clues we missed!

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Now, before Zachary Quinto supporters get all bent out of shape, allow me to first explain. The following is a fan-edit of the audiobook for Alan Dean Foster’s novelization of this year’s Star Trek. The audiobook was narrated by the film’s co-star Zachary Quinto, who played Spock.

From there, an overzealous fan decided that the narration would make a much better romance novel than a story about intergalactic heroism. With that, “Spork! An Erotic Love Story” was born. Dean Foster is quite descriptive in his narrative, and sadly this is only used against him in this slashfic (fan fiction which ends in romance).

Check out the video after the jump, but be warned, if you’re sure dialogue and descriptions from a novelization of Star Trek can’t be considered NSFW, you might be proven wrong. Also, be aware, it can get pretty intense towards the end, but overall it’s quite hilarious. Enjoy.

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